Gertie and The Media

Shortly after the fall of the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge, radio reporters arrived at the scene. Carroll Foster
and KIRO (Seattle) newsmen broadcast from the scene and from a plane
circling above the site. They interviewed several people, including
Senator Homer T. Bone.

"This is the most astounding sight
I have ever witnessed in my lifetime," exclaimed Senator Bone.

Newspapers gave wide coverage to the
spectacular event. So did national news magazines like Newsweek
and Life. Since 1940, on the anniversary date November 7 various
newspapers in the Puget Sound region print stories about the great
collapse.

Scandal: Who Was to Blame?

"U. S. MONEY-LENDERS BLAMED BY ENGINEERS
FOR SPAN CRASH"
That headline appeared in the Tacoma Times on November 9, 1940,
two days after the collapse of Galloping Gertie. When reporters
asked lead project engineer Clark Eldridge to explain why the Narrows
Bridge collapsed, he could not hold back. He was angry.

Eldridge told the newspapers:
"The men who held the purse-strings were the whip-crackers
on the entire project. We had a tried-and-true conventional bridge
design. We were told we couldn't have the necessary money without
using plans furnished by an eastern firm of engineers, chosen by
the money-lenders." Eldridge and other state engineers had
protested Leon Moisseiff's design with its 8-foot solid girders,
which he called "sails." But, it was no use.

Public Works Administration officials said
they knew nothing about a problem with the bridge's design. Soon,
however, one of their own engineers broke the truth to the newspapers
and the public.

Two months later, the scandal again made headlines:
"BRIDGE EXPOSE BREAKS" bannered the Tacoma Times on January
11, 1941. This time, it became public that the PWA's own engineer
had refused to approve the bridge when it was completed in July
1940. David L. Glenn, the PWA's field engineer on site in Tacoma,
submitted a report warning of faults in design and refusing to recommend
acceptance of the structure. But, the PWA accepted the bridge. So
did the Washington State Toll Bridge Authority.

The PWA fired David Glenn two weeks after
the story made headlines. Newspapers reported that he had been "relieved"
of his position on January 25, 1941.

The FWA ("Carmody") Investigation Board

The State of Washington and the United
States government both appointed boards of experts to investigate
the collapse of the Narrows Bridge. The insurance companies established
a "Narrows Bridge Loss Committee."

The Federal Works Administration appointed
a 3-member panel of top-ranking engineers: Othmar Amman, Dr. Theodore
Von Karmen, and Glen B. Woodruff. Their report to the Administrator
of the FWA, John Carmody, became known as the "Carmody Board"
report.

In March 1941 the Carmody Board announced
its findings. Three key points stood out: (1) The principal cause
of the Narrows Bridge's failure was its "flexibility;"
(2) the solid plate girder and deck acted like an airfoil, creating
"drag" and "lift;" and (3) aerodynamic forces
were little understood and engineers needed to test all suspension
bridge designs thoroughly using models in a wind tunnel.

The Board refused to blame
any one person. The entire engineering profession was responsible,
said the experts. They exonerated Leon Moisseiff. However, after
November 7, 1940, his services were not in high demand.

The Carmody Board's report contained a
statement by the Acting Commissioner of Public Works, J. J. Madigan,
explaining the selection of consulting engineers for the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge Project. It included the following statement: "In
no instance did this Administration nominate, or express any preference
for any particular individual, group or firm."

Clark Eldridge had a very
different opinion. In his autobiography, Eldridge bluntly
declares that Moisseiff and the consulting firm of Moran & Proctor,
"associated themselves to secure the commission to design the
Tacoma bridge. They went to Washington, called on the Public Works
Administration and informed them that they could design a structure
here that could be built for not more than $7,000,000. So when Mr.
Murrow appeared asking for $11,000,000, our estimate, he was told
$7,000,000 was all they would approve. They suggested that he confer
with Mr. Moisseiff and Moran & Proctor. This he did, ending
up employing them to direct a new design."

One month after the Carmody Board's report
became public, Clark Eldridge decided he needed a career change.
In April 1941 he resigned and took a job with the United States
Navy on the island of Guam in the South Pacific.

Impact on Tacoma and Peninsula Residents

For Tacoma and the Peninsula, the collapse
of the Narrows Bridge was a tragedy. The military lost its vital
link between the Bremerton Navy Yard and the Army's installations
at McChord Field and Camp Lewis for the duration of World War II.
Merchants on both sides of the Narrows lost income from the retails
trade between Pierce and Kitsap Counties. For many Peninsula residents
the Narrows Bridge had been a lifeline, connecting their rural area
to the commercial centers in Tacoma and even Seattle.

Disappointment ran high
in Tacoma. "Bridge Price Too Low," wrote the Tacoma Times.
Tacomans had lost the Narrows Bridge because it was "designed
to fit a price." The newspaper blasted federal authorities
for "an experiment in skimpiness." Just months earlier,
the local media had praised Moisseiff's design as "graceful."
Now they criticized it as "skinny."

Tacomans felt angry.
The federal officials and eastern politicians who had restricted
the funds for a Narrows Bridge had underestimated the region's need
for the span. Nor did they appreciate the bridge's value to the
people of the surrounding communities. But, Gertie's popularity
proved them wrong. In its first four months, the bridge's revenues
fully justified a $10 million bridge, one that would have been four
lanes wide, strong, sound, safe--and still spanning the Narrows.

Restoring ferry service for cross-Narrows
travelers got top priority. In 1938 the state had purchased Mitchell
Skansie's Washington Navigation Company and two ferries. Immediately
after the Narrows Bridge collapsed, officials moved quickly. By
6 o'clock the very next morning (November 8th), two ferries began
steaming over the route made obsolete just four months before. By
the end of the decade, when the current Narrows Bridge was completed,
commuters were ready for the new span.

TRAFFIC 1930-2000

Year

Vehicles Annual

Vehicles Daily Avg.

1930 ferry

171,993

471

1935 ferry

165,724

454

1939 ferry

205,842

564

1940 bridge

265,748

1,661

(July 1- Nov. 7) (avg. 66,437/mo.)

1940 ferry

144,587

396

1945 ferry

480,009

1,315

1950 ferry

593,871

1,627

(Jan. 1 – Oct. 13)

1950 bridge

280,464

3,904

(Oct. 14 - Dec. 31)

1955

1,715,135

4,699

1960

2,269,570

6,218

1965

4,112,455

11,267

1970

7,724,860

21,164

1980

14,225,145

38,973

1990

24,299,145

66,573

2000

32,120,000

88,000

The Money Side—Scandal, Squabbles & Lawsuits

Galloping Gertie left a tangle of financial
issues for the community and State officials to unravel. From insurance
litigation to larceny, from salvage to successful funding, the money
side of the collapse aftermath became a long chain of frustrating
events.

The 1940 Narrows Bridge carried
insurance spread among 22 different companies. The total insured
value was $5.2 million, or 80% of its full value. When the bridge
collapsed, the lives of some insurance men suddenly became very
interesting.

Hallett R. French certainly became excited
at the news of Galloping Gertie's demise. Insurance agent French
had pocketed premiums on one of the State's policies and never reported
the transaction to his company. He felt sure he'd never be found
out. He was, of course, and went to prison for his bungled criminal
effort. More on French

Meanwhile, the State and the insurance
companies became embroiled in settlement squabbles. On June 2, 1941
the insurance underwriters filed their report. They believed that
the piers, cables, and towers could be salvaged and reused. They
offered the State a settlement of $1.8 million. Three weeks later,
on June 26, 1941 the State filed its claim. Except for the piers,
said the State, the bridge was virtually a total loss, estimated
at almost $4.3 million.

When the legal dust settled in August
1941, the two sides agreed on a settlement of $4 million. Considering
the fact that the piers alone had cost $2.4 million of the bridge's
total $6.4 million budget, the settlement amounted to a resounding
victory for the State. Now the Toll Bridge Authority faced the problem
of replacing the Narrows Bridge.

Unfortunately, the legal and insurance hassles
had taken over 9 months to resolve. War intervened before funding
could be secured and a new bridge started. The Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 disrupted the State's plans.

It Took Almost a Decade

Almost exactly a decade elapsed between
first Narrows Bridge's collapse in November 1940 and completion
in October 1950 of the Current Narrows Bridge. The insurance litigation
was only the first of a series of events that slowed the work.

World War II also delayed efforts to
replace the Narrows span. Salvage efforts began shortly after the
November 7 failure of Galloping Gertie and continued to May 1943.
Wartime shortages of steel and wire made them extremely valuable
commodities. The State sold steel from the cables and the remainder
of the suspension span as surplus.

Salvage of cables WSA, WSDOT records

In one of history's ironic twists, the
salvage operation cost the State more money than was returned from
the sale of surplus materials. By the time the State was able to
build the bridge, it would have been cheaper to let the salvaged
parts drop into the Narrows. The Toll Bridge Authority paid nearly
$646,661 for the salvage operation. In return for the 7,000 tons
of scrap steel the State received a meager $295,726. The operation
posted a net loss of $350,933.

There were other reasons. In July 1941
Charles E. Andrew, Principal Consulting Engineer and Chair of the
Board of Consultants for the Toll Bridge Authority, appointed Dexter
R. Smith as chief design engineer to plan the new structure. By
October, the state had a new design ready. The proposed 4-lane replacement
bridge would cost about $7 million. And, it needed testing.

Testing the bridge design fell to F.
B. Farquharson, Professor of Engineering at the University of Washington.
Between 1941 and 1947, Farquharson studied the old span and the
new proposed Narrows Bridge. The tests gave the State's bridge engineers
confidence in their new design. The proposed new bridge would stand
up to winds of 127 miles per hour.

Financing the second Narrows Bridge proved
difficult. After World War II, many major construction projects
competed for bond financing. The needs of Tacoma, Bremerton and
other area residents were not high on financiers' priority lists.

By April 1946, revised designs for the
Narrows Bridge were approved, with a projected cost of $8.5 million.
But, steel was in short supply in the immediate post-WWII years.
Also, the State had difficulty arranging for insurance for the bridge.
Final designs were prepared, but not until August 1947 was the State
able to request bids for the new bridge. By this time the cost had
gone up. The price tag for construction was one-third more than
the Toll Bridge Authority estimated--$11.2 million. The final construction
cost estimate, made just prior to the bond issue, reached $13,738,000.

The tide turned when Pierce County contributed
$1.5 million to a bond guarantee fund.
In December 1947 the Toll Bridge Authority offered a bond issue
of $14 million. Revenues from tolls would pay for the bonds. Finally,
on March 12, 1948 State officials completed bond financing. In the
next two weeks contracts for building the bridge were awarded. Now,
too, steel was available. Events began to move quickly.

Building the Second (Current) Narrows Bridge

Bethlehem Pacific Coast Steel Corporation
and John A. Roebling Sons Company won the construction contracts
for the replacement Tacoma Narrows Bridge. In June 1948 construction
began. It took 29 months to complete the Current Narrows Bridge.

The workmen who built the great bridge
braved the dangers of "high steel" work. They suffered
during one of the coldest winters on record. Read the stories of
two of these men, Earl
White and Joe
Gotchy.

Three Workers Died

Three men lost their lives during construction
of the current Narrows Bridge. Fellow workers honored their sacrifices.
In the traditional token of respect, the crew quit work for the
day and went to downtown Tacoma to hold a wake.

Workers faced the greatest dangers during
the deck construction phase. Two of the three men who died were
steelworkers helping to build the deck.

Robert E. Drake, May 24, 1948
First to lose his life was carpenter Robert E. Drake. Drake worked
for Woodworth Company. He and his fellow workers had been busy
at the west anchorage. On May 24th Drake happened to be in the
wrong place at the worst possible moment. He stood below a derrick
just as a cable broke, sending the boom crashing down on him.

Glen "Whitey" Davis, date unknown
One of the ironworkers who helped build the deck was Glen "Whitey"
Davis. He and Earl White worked steel on the same crew. During
our recent interview with White, he grimly recalled Davis' death.

"He and I were real close friends. We had finished the deck
and were starting to load timbers for the deck that the cement
trucks would drive on. I had swung a big load of timbers in to
him. When he stepped, he missed and went all the way down. God,
when he hit, it sounded like an artillery piece went off."

Lawrence S. (Stuart) Gale, April 7, 1950
It was a Friday afternoon. Stuart Gale was working on deck construction,
helping to connect trusses in the support system. Fellow ironworker
Earl White remembers the tragedy:

"Stuart Gale died when they were working on the sections
down below deck, where the diagonal and bottom chords were hooked
together. These sections had temporary welds on them that were
put on in the shops. So, they had swung this one section in,
and Stuart Gale looked, and he called up to the young foreman,
Danny Lowe. He said, "These welds don't look very good
down here." It was Gale's first day on this part of the
job, connecting the roadbed. So, Danny said, "Well, Gale,
they've been holding all the way across. We haven't had no problem."
A second time Gale hollered up. And, Danny said, "Cut 'er
loose." And, when Gale did, well, 40 ton of iron and him
went in the hole. You see, a safety net wouldn't have stopped
him. They'd have caught Whitey Davis. But, they wouldn't have
caught Gale and 40 ton of steel. He'd have gone right through.
Danny was really hurt over this. He could never live that down."

Stuart Gale was 36 years old. They held a memorial service
on a boat floating beneath the cold steel of the unfinished
deck. Gale's wife and 3-year old daughter sat quietly. At the
end, Mrs. Gale rose to her feet and cast a flower wreath onto
the swirling waters of the Narrows.

Completion of the Bridge, October 1950

On October 14, 1950 opening day celebrations
capped the long process to build Galloping Gertie's replacement.
Final cost for the bridge, reported by Charles Andrew (as of June
30, 1952), stood at $14,011,384.28.

The new span, nicknamed "Sturdy Gertie"
by local promoters, was indeed sturdier than its predecessor. Wider
(to carry 4 lanes of traffic), heavier, and stronger, the 1950 Narrows
Bridge signaled a new era of suspension bridge design. The span
was a landmark of aerodynamic bridge engineering.